Black Kettle
by snakebuttt
Summary: What would Bismuth say when she woke up? Would she placidly live alongside them on Earth? Would she try to kill her again? Would she tell her "I told you so"? Rose contemplates releasing Bismuth after the Gem War.


Pink grass rolled across like ocean waves, cascading along the endless plane. Blades tickled her feet as she stood by the edge of her hill, facing her tree that sat along the very top. The airless wind agitated her hair, buffering her curls across her face as she stood, contemplating the bubble in her hands.

Bismuth sat inside, forever awaiting for her response.

Rose did not speak to her. Only watched. Silently.

She supposed it was fitting. Much of their time together was full of heavy talk; discussions, tactics, plans for the future.

Plans to save gems, organisms, the Earth.

* * *

"Think about it!" Bismuth exclaimed, her personal experiment locked in her grip, swung around menacingly. Hot lava bubbled and gurgled beside their feet; Rose found the ominous light much too distracting to face her friend, "if we continue being so placid with our attacks, Homeworld will just reform their soldiers and continue to increase their numbers. All the while, our allies are being taken without mercy. They're being smashed upon capture! We are losing allies – no, _friends_ by the minute! If we use The Breaking Point, we can finally start to leave a scar in their defences! This will be the game changer we need to win this!"

 _What a vile room_ , Rose thought, watching lava suck alongside the creases of rock along the floor. Maybe the heat was getting to Bismuth's head.

"No." Rose stated, "We do not kill lives when our objective is to _save_ those lives."

" _Whose_ lives are we saving, Rose?" Bismuth growled, taking a step towards her leader. She was understandably agitated, but Rose had made a decision and that was final, "it sounds to me like you want us to just die, one by one. Are we nothing but pawns to you? I thought we were all meant to be our own gems! We can't do that if we're in pieces!"

Rose tilted her head towards her ally, eyes refusing to break contact, "Why would we use the same tactic as Homeworld? We're trying to show them their way of living is wrong; repeating their actions contradicts our entire reason to be here."

Bismuth let out a frustrated cry, her free fist shifting into a hammer and shattering a segment of the ground beside her. Rose kept her footing, watching the pieces of stone crumble and melt into liquid, " _Eugh, fine_! Fine, we don't kill their warriors! But we need to take out the Diamonds! The Diamonds never change their shape! They're so full of themselves, so fixated on the way Homeworld works – they're so solid that they pretend to be the foundations of all gems, but they're so stuck in place that they're brittle. The Breaking Point can turn that brittle into _dust_. If we take out the Diamonds, we've won everything. Then even _their_ gems are free!"

Rose took a step towards the older gem. It was understandable why her thoughts were so vindictive; she had lived centuries rebuilding planets, spending her entire life working under the orders of the Diamonds. Rose was nothing more than a pitifully young soldier, created on one foreign planet, and naively infatuated with its natural state. But with her youth came a power that Bismuth couldn't obtain; a lack of reasoning to become bias. It was why she was the leader after all.

" _No_ , Bismuth. My order is final."

Bismuth regarded her for a moment.

"You're just like them," she sighed, sounding pained, "you think that because you made us open our eyes to other possibilities; that you're suddenly in charge of every other option. You're so headstrong in your decision that you won't even think about anyone else! It's just all about what you want, isn't it?"

Rose said nothing, watching the other gem. Waiting. Her arm brushed against the hilt of her sheathed sword beside her hip idly. Bismuth watched every movement.

" _Fine_ ," she huffed, raising her drill weapon towards Rose, "I see how it is. If I need to destroy the leaders of Homeworld, I need to destroy our own leader as well. You drive a hard bargain, Rose Quartz. Your followers will be disappointed with your betrayal to our cause."

It took less than two seconds; Bismuth had hardly taken a step forward, before Rose was crushing her body weight against her, her unsheathed blade digging into her skin and gleaming out from her back.

" _No_ Bismuth," Rose hummed, her cheek brushing against hers. She stared away from her, refusing to look at her trusted blacksmith, "it is _I_ that am disappointed with _you_. When you reform, this war will be over, and you will apologise to everyone about how foolish your plan was. How foolish you were for doubting me."

Bismuth coughed out a pained breath, relaxing her head against Rose's shoulder as if she were enjoying the company of her friend, "You wish," she smiled, "You're a _fool_ , Rose Quartz."

And then she released her form in a ghastly puff of smoke.

* * *

Rose took her first few steps towards her tree. It was only a sapling, bark beginning to form around its base, and soft leaves sprouting along the top of its thin developing branches. But trees lived for hundreds of years, it had as much time as it needed to grow large and strong.

Bismuth had yet to object to its beauty. She sat silently in her bubble, held with care.

* * *

The sky erupted into thunderous chords of cries. Lightning, thunder, and the wails of gem warriors resounded around them in an endless chorus, waiting for a resolve. Rose Quartz was sealed in her bubble, pinning down the gem that was four times her size, glaring at her with complete and utter animosity. Pink Diamond, trapped alongside her in her own bubble.

"You've _lost_ ," Rose Quartz announced, hoping her voice would carry through the cries of all the surrounding gems that battered against her bubble, desperate to either protect their diamond or to protect herself. Regardless of the noise outside, the silent tension within the hollow space was all the more deafening.

"Surrender your power over the planet, Pink Diamond," Rose pressed her sword deeper against the Diamond's neck threateningly, "The Crystal Gems have won the Earth colony. Call off your gems and return to Homeworld."

Pink Diamond, a giant of power and grace, lay almost content beneath the pink warrior, "As if I'd ever stoop so low to obey one of my own creations. You, Rose Quartz, are a _failure_ of a Quartz. You were all built to destroy, and it seems that's the only thing you _can't_ do. It's a relief that I won't be making any more Rose Quartzes, imagine the mess that would've occurred if there had been more than one of you."

Rose heard the pounding increase against her bubble and she hissed, "Enough stalling for time! Call your gems off otherwise you'll be known as the first diamond in history to be destroyed!"

Pink Diamond laughed gently, "A weak threat, coming from you. You've failed to take a single life in this battle. You just gathered a bunch of defective gems who are built for fighting and let them fight your war _for_ you. Aspiring to become a Diamond yourself, are you? You'll have to try harder than that."

Rose Quartz grit her teeth, "I will kill you. I will. Surrender and I won't have to."

"Now whose stalling, my little Quartz soldier? What's the matter, are you so intent on never following a single expectation that we have for your kind? You'll never get anywhere being a pacifist. _In fact_ …"

The pounding got unbearably loud, and Rose turned to face what she assumed was the valiant efforts of gems trying to break down her defence. But to her horror, not a single gem was trying anymore. No fighting was occurring. All visible gems were looking up at the sky, frozen, watching something she could not see. Several Homeworld gems began to retreat. From beneath her, the captured Diamond laughed.

"My beloved Diamonds are ready to serve their purpose to the very end. Even if that means trying out a new weapon that will wipe out every single traitor on this miserable planet," Pink Diamond gleamed, looking beyond ecstatic, "won't this be fun, Rose Quartz? Every single Crystal Gem will be killed in an instant, by you and your actions. Look at how many you'll be killing without raising a single finger! And by the sound of it, the weapon sounds just about ready."

Rose Quartz stepped off from the Diamond, backing up into her own bubble and watching the pink dense dissolve into nothing. Pink Diamond began to lift herself up.

"How courteous of you, allowing me to escape? Truly, a foolish gem to the very end."

Her sword spoke before she did, a gaping whoosh of air as Pink Diamond's torso cut into two, before exploding into a shower of pink dust. Before Rose Quartz could hold back her scream, she brought the hilt of her sword crashing down onto the diamond cut, striking it with enough force to lower to her knees. Shards flew in every direction, and before Rose could consider her actions, she turned and fled, racing towards Pearl and Garnet, her shield forming at the ready as the pounding sky began to blind the world around them.

* * *

Rose watched her tears slip down the bubble. Bismuth did not wipe away her tears. She did not lend a comforting hand. She was unaware that anything had happened. Would she even be willing to feel any sympathy for her friend, once she awoke?

Bismuth was right. She really was no better than Homeworld. In the end, Bismuth's choice won and prevailed. And because she took so long to make that choice, everyone was dead.

Aside from Garnet and Pearl, of course. But did relishing in the idea of her two closest friends surviving excuse the hundreds and thousands of others who were sacrificed in their stead?

What would Bismuth say when she woke up? Would she placidly live alongside them on Earth? Would she try to kill her again? Would she tell her " _I told you so_ "?

Bismuth was right. And Rose Quartz was wrong.

But Rose Quartz was a prideful gem. An ex-soldier who never once fought for a battle she was _ordered_ to fight in. And she could taste the vile seed of doubt that crawled up her throat like a kindergartner escaping into light.

Bismuth was unpredictable. And Rose did not know how to resolve this.

So her bubble released from her hands, and floated up until it nestled beside the growing branches of her tree. Suspended like a ripe fruit waiting to fall.

Rose Quartz walked away. This was no longer her fruit to pick.

* * *

 **A/N:** I just found it a little bizarre as to why Rose would seal Bismuth away at the idea of shattering gems, but then proceeded to do the act herself. Surely she would have released Bismuth afterwards, apologised and told her what had to be done? Of course, Rose herself is the biggest mystery of the show. Perhaps we'll never truly understand the things she's done. But that's what theories and fanfictions are for, am I right?

Also this was written as a rush job for _Cartoon Network's No Bullying month, Week One – Press Yourself!_ Which involves doing various activities as fast as you can with little to no thought behind it and just going with the flow. So you best believe I haven't proof read this stuff because I jotted it down within an hour and honestly that's the most I've written in years so apparently it's working.


End file.
